The Authority Guide to Behaviour in Business

How to inspire others and build successful relationships

Robin Hills

• Publisher: The Authority Guides
• Year: 2017
• eBook ISBN: 9781912300099
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Human Resource Management
• Index: Business

Explore the psychology behind what really motivates and influences your clients, colleagues and customers. Discover what makes people tick, how they perceive and react to different situations and why they behave the way they do. In this fast, focused guide, emotional intelligence expert Robin Hills reveals insights into motivation and how people perceive situations in business. As he unlocks the secrets of human nature you'll learn how to inspire top performance, gain trust, win confidence and build lasting relationships - more effectively and with great results!

Behaviour

Social interaction styles

Both emotional and social intelligence are underpinned by self-awareness.

Social interaction styles consider your preferred pattern of behaviour for a large number of situations. Your interaction style represents itself through your daily interactions and is not subject to judgement or evaluation – it is merely your acquired preference.

At a surface level, your style is closely linked to whether you tend to assert yourself or respond to others in social settings, and whether you tend to display emotion or secure control in group settings. It shows itself in your communication style, conflict-management style, the job roles you are drawn to, and the way you perceive yourself and your contributions in the workplace.

The underlying model of social interaction styles involves two primary dimensions: how assertion is expressed and how emotions are managed.

Assertiveness

You may prefer to take the lead in assertive ways, speaking directly and frankly while focusing on strategic objectives. Alternatively, you may prefer to respond to input from others, and sharing your own ideas as a way to build upon others’.

Emotional control

You may prefer to express yourself outwardly in social settings or to maintain composure and control.

The two extremes of the assertive and emotional variables provide four basic combinations that can be thought of as behavioural preferences across a range of situations (Figure 3). Some people blend these four patterns almost equally, while others may tend to prefer one behavioural pattern over others.

Figure 3 Social interactive styles based upon assertiveness and degree of emotional control

Years of research into workplace success have shown that you have one of four social interactional styles. Each style has its own preferred way of acting, thinking and making decisions.

Understanding these preferences allows you to determine the best way to interact with anyone.

• Driver style: people control their emotions and speak assertively. They prefer to be decisive and control a situation. Their focus is on outcomes and results. They are not concerned about relationships or feelings and may come across as blunt at times.
• Expressive style: people show their emotions readily and speak openly. They are optimistic and creative and enjoy sharing their ideas. They may appear to others as unfocused and easily distracted.
• Amiable style: people show their emotions openly and prefer to ask questions rather than give orders. Relationships, feelings and personal security are important to them. As they want the time to consider the impact of decisions on everyone, they may appear hesitant at times.
• Analytical style: people control their emotions but tend to ask questions rather than give orders. They are focused on logic and accuracy, and they act deliberately to achieve that end. At times, their focus on getting things perfect may be perceived as being critical.

Focus and pace

The expressive and amiable styles display emotions openly and respond best to those who do the same. Their focus in achieving an outcome is through relationships. As their tendency is to readily show emotion, this helps them to build relationships at work, but it can have mixed effects on team cohesiveness.

The driver and analytical styles tend to view displays of emotion as not necessarily being relevant in the workplace. These styles are more focused on the task itself. Both of these styles care about personal relationships and feelings but consider these to be relevant only in certain settings, preferring to express themselves more rationally at work.

The expressive and driver styles will put more energy into situations and what they are trying to achieve, and operate at a faster pace.

The analytical and amiable styles have a tendency to conserve their energy and, as a consequence, are more deliberate in the way in which they go about things, and so are slower paced.

The circle in Figures 3-10 shows where emotionally intelligent and socially intelligent engagements take place. Here, the focus and pace of the interaction is more in harmony with others involved and can be...

Table of contents

• Contents
• Introduction
• Emotional and social intelligence
• Human factors
• Perception
• The way the brain works
• Communication
• Behaviour
• Organisational culture
• Reading list
• About the author